Synopsis

"Dear Mrs Morrison, A long time ago, almost thirty-four years past, you wrote to me requesting that I contact you should I ever wish to leave my home. I knew then that I would never live anywhere else, and so there was no point in my replying to you. I saw you almost every day, pushing your pram along Shore Road. You looked very young. I remember that on one occasion you waved to me, and I think I tilted my head towards you. Perhaps you did not see. There have been times when that scene has come to me vividly, and I have wondered what has become of you both. I am instructing my solicitor to write to you at the address on your letter. Holmlea is yours if you still wish it."

Elizabeth Pringle : Born just before World War I, Elizabeth Pringle has been a familiar yet solitary figure on the Scottish island of Arran. A dutiful daughter, an inspirational teacher, a gardener. But did anyone really know her?

When Elizabeth dies, her will contains a surprise. She has left her home and her belongings to someone who is all but a stranger, a young mother she watched pushing a pram down the road more than thirty years ago.

Now it falls to Martha, the baby in that pram, to find out how her mother inherited the house in such strange circumstances, and in doing so, perhaps leave her own past behind. But first she has to find the answer to the question: who was Elizabeth Pringle.

A captivating and haunting story of the richness beneath so-called ordinary lives and the secrets and threads that hold women together.

Details

• Format : Standard Thick 2nd Hand Paperback.
• Condition : As New
• Category : Fiction - Families & Sagas
• Published : 2014 (Two Roads)
• ISBN : 9781444777628
• SKU : B001441
• PPC : SP410gm
• RRP : £9.99
• Quantity Available : 1 only.

External Reviews

'Affecting & Tender' - The Times.

'I loved this book. Well done Kirsty Wark on your debut novel. Arran is a place I have always wanted to visit and the descriptions make it even more enticing. A gentle read, with likeable characters. Spread over two different eras and the connection of a house, 'Holmlea', which Elizabeth Pringle leaves to a stranger, Anna Morrison, in her will.

A story of memories and heartbreak. Martha now has to find out why this house has been left to her mother, Anna. Each chapter is quite short, with Elizabeth writing hers like a diary, of her life and first love on her beloved island. Martha travels between Arran and Glasgow/Edinburgh, with her mother suffering from dementia she takes on the unleashing of the mystery of the legacy on her mothers behalf. She falls in love with the house and its secrets. There was slight twist to the tale towards the end, but it was dealt with in a delicate manner and brought a tear to my eye.' - Goodreads Review.

'Compelling & Rewarding' - Daily Mail.

The Author

Kirsteen Anne "Kirsty" Wark FRSE is a British journalist, newsreader and television presenter & author, best known for fronting BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts spin-off Newsnight Review from 2002 to 2014.

Featured Author . . . Kirsty Wark